Home Again

Yesterday we got home safe and sound.  Little Solveig (prounounced soul-vay) is doing so well.  She eats like she’s been doing it for years and has the tiniest little cry.

Her birth was quite a whirlwind. I might type out a blog-worthy birth story sometime.  The cliff notes version is she was born exactly 18 minutes after we arrived at the hospital after an entire day of 10 minute apart contractions at home.  It was intense, but as my first planned natural birth, (I’ve had unplanned natural…where I planned on getting an epidural but the baby just came too fast.) I felt so mentally in control and it went so so well.  I didn’t need any stitches and she’s just perfect.

I did have some complications in the hours after the birth as my uterus’ afterbirth contractions just weren’t doing the job.  I lost more blood than I realized and that left me very anemic. If I’m really good about resting and taking my pills, I should have somewhat normal hemoglobin levels in about a month.  They kept me an extra day at the hospital just to let me rest more, and I sure appreciated it. 

So I’m back home now, and grateful more than ever that Knut is not harvesting right now!  Things are pretty slow around here, except for the fact that Knut’s maternal grandfather was in the hospital the same time that we were, and will probably have to be moved to a nursing home at this point.  The stress of that situation weighs on the family, especially the extended family, but what a good time to have a baby to bring an added dose of joy in this season.

So unfortunately I’ll have to rely pretty heavily on Knut for just a bit longer.  Although as he was on his way out the door this morning to run some errands, leaving me just with Solveig, we realized that it was nice that we didn’t have to worry about me going into labor while he was gone.  The feeling of being a walking time bomb has left.

Plus, Christmas is just around the corner, and traditionally we hang out at Knut’s parent’s house quite a bit with family in town.  I’ll have lots of help, and we only live 5 miles down the road if I need to take Solveig and spend some time in quiet.  Just after Christmas my parents will be coming to help take care of me, and so I doubt I’ll have anything close to my full chore load until next year.  Right now, the only 2 people I need to take care of are Solveig and me.  The kids will be back home from Grandma’s this afternoon, and I’ll definitely be involved with that, but Knut will be here to get snacks, and help with cooking and laundry, etc. 

The kids are just so in love with Solveig.  It will be nice to all be home together now.  I’ll have to post some more pictures soon, but I’ll be honest…it’s not a high priority now.  We ordered my new-to-us camera finally that I’ve been saving for and should be here in the next few days. (Digital SLR Canon 30D…ooooo….ahhhhhh) Then you’ll be smacked with picture overload!  Until then, I’m just going to soak in this little one all to myself, nap along with her, and eat a bunch of iron.